Tigers sign journeyman catcher Dustin Garneau to minor-league deal

Chris McCosky
The Detroit News

Detroit – This probably isn’t the catcher signing most Tigers’ fans were clamoring for.

The club on Wednesday signed 33-year-old journeyman Dustin Garneau to a minor-league contract. He has also been invited to big-league camp in February.

Dustin Garneau

Garneau, who spent last season with the Astros (17 games) backing up Martin Maldonado, has played on five teams in parts of six big-league seasons – Rockies, Athletics, White Sox, Angels and Astros. He’s a solid defensive catcher with a career slash-line in 140 games of .202/.288/.338. He has thrown out 33 percent of would-be base-stealers over his career.

 The Tigers are still expected to sign a veteran big-league catcher at some point this offseason. Garneau will presumably compete for a backup role with Grayson Greiner and Jake Rogers.

Twitter @cmccosky